NHS’s plan to abolish CCGs must not dilute primary care’s influence, say leaders

NHS England has proposed abolishing clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) by April 2022 and moving their functions to statutory integrated care systems.

A document outlining NHS England’s legislative recommendations proposes that integrated care systems become “a statutory corporate NHS body . . . that additionally brings CCG statutory functions into the ICS.”1

Until now, NHS England has avoided recommending a wholesale NHS reorganisation to achieve its vision for integration. But it said that the covid-19 pandemic had “increased the appetite for statutory clarity for [integrated care systems] and the organisations within them.”

Abolishing CCGs is one of two options proposed—the other is a less radical move to create “a statutory committee model . . . that binds together current statutory organisations.” But NHS England indicated that its preference was to make …